Does anyone know of any really good books that tell/describe how Akhenaton was a monotheist and how his beliefs related to the Hebrew monotheist beliefs? Experts or people I could contact that know a lot about him would be helpful too.
An e-mail at natesbondw@netscape.net would be most preferable!
Thanks!
Drummerfein

Does anyone know of any really good books that tell/describe how Akhenaton was a monotheist and how his beliefs related to the Hebrew monotheist beliefs? Experts or people I could contact that know a lot about him would be helpful too.
Thanks!
Drummerfein

Hi Drummerfein,
Welcome to KingTutOne:) i am not aware of any such book. In part because what you are asking for doesn't exist. Akhenaton, or Akhenaten wasn't a monotheist as we moderns tend to look at monotheism. Nor is there any known relation between Atenist and Hebrew beliefs. The reason why folks tend to think Akhenaten predates Moses is because once according to the timeline used to date Moses and Exodus. Moses lived after Akhenaten. Today more scholars if they believe Moses lived tend to date the Exodus to the reign of Thutmose III. Which would allow Moses to live prior to Akhenaten.

The city of Amarna where the Atenist religion had its glory days. Was first discovered in 1824. At a time when hieroglyphs were still mostly unreadable. When it first became understandable, yes there was some belief that he was a monotheist. And that perhaps his Atenist religion might have been a fore-runner to Moses. However these beliefs are now discredited by findings such as the progressive influence of the Aten during the reigns of Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III, and his grandfather Thutmose IV. It is during the reign of Thutmose IV that the Aten, who originally dates from the Old Kingdom rose to a small amount of fame in the Middle Kingdom but his worship faded with the liberation of Egypt from the Hyksos at the start of the 18th Dynasty. This liberation granted by the god Amun of whom Ahmose the liberator Pharaoh worshipped. once again rose in the pantheon resulting in the Atenist supremacy under Akhenaten (See KMT A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, Volume 13, Number 2, Summer 2002 pages 40- 56). There was no real revolution of monotheism. It is believed that only the Pharaoh and his household, wife, daughter actually had access to the Aten and everyone else gained access to the god through Pharaoh and his household.